They are one of my favourite things and I have spent much time learning them and not becoming fluent. I'm also, to my amazement, studying linguistics in university. I've been learning Spanish for almost eleven years now, though it's not my favourite language. My favourite languages are English, Norwegian, Swedish, Czech, Russian, Persian, Irish, Sesotho, Hebrew, Spanish (I suppose), and Basque. I've tried to learn many, some of which are the ones above (sans Sesotho), Japanese, Mandarin, French and German. Current focuses are Spanish and Russian, with Mandarin sneaking up on them.

Well, I'm Belgian, living in the Dutch speaking part of our nation. Up to the 60's French was the language of the upper class and to this day a lot of our dialect is based on French translations of certain words.

I seem to remember something with Rwanda as well. Where I live Afrikaans is the second most common language. There are a lot of South Africans around, so I hear it on occasion. I prefer it to Dutch, but Belgian Dutch has some appeal to me.

I seem to remember something with Rwanda as well. Where I live Afrikaans is the second most common language. There are a lot of South Africans around, so I hear it on occasion. I prefer it to Dutch, but Belgian Dutch has some appeal to me.

You're referring to the incident where Belgium withdrew their UN forces, which lead to the Tutsi genocide.

Africans is a nice language, very pleasant on the ears, but it's also very literal in its vocabulary, which gives it this innocence that often seems amusing to Dutch speaking people. The Dutch of the Netherlands is rather ugly to me, although some individuals prove it can be very pleasant as well.

I was out of school before I had any interest in learning another language. My brother did Spanish in high school, but it didn't take long for my Spanish to be better.

SupremeAC said:

You're referring to the incident where Belgium withdrew their UN forces, which lead to the Tutsi genocide.

Africans is a nice language, very pleasant on the ears, but it's also very literal in its vocabulary, which gives it this innocence that often seems amusing to Dutch speaking people. The Dutch of the Netherlands is rather ugly to me, although some individuals prove it can be very pleasant as well.

I've read of similar things happening with certain Slavic languages. Or even Dutch as compared to German. Simpler, more "child-like" (for lack of a better term) supposedly.